Blake Leyerle

Education

Ph.D. Duke University

Research and Training Interests

John Chrysostom and the emotions; early Christian pilgrimage; domestic devotions

Publications

“Imagining Antioch, or The Fictional Space of Alleys and Markets.” Intellectual Exchange and Religious Diversity in Antioch (CE 350–450). Ed. Silke-Petra Bergjan and Susanna Elm. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018: 255-78.
“The Etiology of Sorrow and its Therapeutic Benefits in the Preaching of John Chrysostom.” Journal of Late Antiquity 8 (2015): 368–85.
“Lot’s Wife on the Border.” Harvard Theological Review 107 (2014): 59–80.
“’Keep me, Lord, as the Apple of Your Eyes’: An Early Christian Child’s Amulet.” Journal of Early Christian History 3.2 (2013): 73–93.
“Refuse, Filth, and Excrement in the Homilies of John Chrysostom.” Journal of Late Antiquity 2:2 (2009): 337–56.

Biography

Blake Leyerle's scholarly specialization lies in the social and cultural history of early Christianity. She has published on a wide range of topics (such as almsgiving, children, table manners, domestic devotions, travel and communication, pilgrimage, the theater, asceticism, urban life, amulets, sewers, animals, and the emotions), but has a particular interest in John Chrysostom. All of her work is marked by a commitment to incorporating material reality as well as the insights of critical theory. She is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the North American Patristics Society, and has served in multiple capacities on their steering and planning committees. Since 1990, she has taught at all levels at Notre Dame and been recognized for her excellence in teaching. A founding member of the interdisciplinary Masters Program in Early Christian Studies at Notre Dame, she was also its director for seven years. She is currently finishing a monograph on John Chrysostom and the emotions, as well as a second book on early Christian pilgrimage (4th-6th centuries).